What is My Grades?

The University of Brighton approved an amendment to the current Electronic Management of Assessment (EMA) policy to include the use of My Grades in all schools in 2016/17. This post aims to briefly explain what My Grades is and how it affects students, academic and administrative staff.

What is My Grades?

My Grades is a tool students can use to access assessment grades and feedback, regardless of the esubmission tool in use (e.g Turnitin, studentcentral, studentfolio). The aim is to give a consistent, simple and timely way for students to access their grades and feedback. This relies on academic staff recording all summative assessment grades and feedback within studentcentral, using the Grade Centre.

Benefits of My Grades?

For Students: A single location to access grades/feedback within a module. Also the ability to access My Grades across all module areas giving them a clearer picture of their performance across a course/programme. Due to module instances, students retain access to their grades/feedback as they progress through their degree, aiding with their engagement with feedback in feeding forward. Ratified grades are still delivered to students via the Personal Tab in studentcentral.

For Academic Staff: By logging all grades and feedback electronically in one location, staff have easier access to grades/feedback and there is no need to work with CAMS sheets or archive feedback. LTA’s can support staff with a range of feedback mechanisms, including text documents/templates, audio & video feedback.

For Administrative Staff: LTA’s have been working with school offices to train staff in the process of downloading and moving grades from studentcentral to CAMS. Having all module grades in a single place supports this process. This process has recently been simplified removing the need to look up letter grades and check digits. Further automation is aimed for – see ‘What is the Grades Journey’ below.

What is the Grade Centre?

The Grade Centre is an online spreadsheet held within every module area on studentcentral. It automatically contains details of each student enrolled on the module, and each time an esubmission tool is used to create an submission point (e.g. Turnitin), a column is added. As the papers are graded, the column receives this information from the system and completes the spreadsheet. For those assessments not requiring an esubmission (e.g. a practical submission), a manual column can be added and grades/feedback entered accordingly. This the removes the need for the academic to complete a CAMS sheet as the school office can export the grades from studentcentral to import to CAMS.

What are we doing already?

Most schools are already using Turnitin and studentcentral for eMarking, and therefore are making use of the grade centre. Most school offices are importing grades to CAMS via the grade centre export.

In 2016/17 we are aiming to support schools with ensuring all assessments are recorded in the Grade Centre, and therefore available via My Grades. This includes practical submissions, vivas, presentations etc. This has started to happen in most schools and we are working closely with staff to make this happen.

What do I need to do?

With assessments that are not currently being eMarked through Turnitin/studentcentral, speak to your local Learning Technologies Adviser who can advise how to record these grades/feedback in the grade centre. You may also see workshops/sessions on your campus about My Grades/eMarking (contact your LTA to find out more)

What is the Grades Journey

The Grades Journey project is addressing the alignment between assessment records in CAMS and studentcentral, with the aims of automating the creation of the assessment columns in studentcentral and then returning the grades to CAMS once completed on studentcentral. This is being piloted in the School of Pharmacy and Biomolecular Sciences in Sem 2 2016/17.

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